The present invention relates to a window up-and-down-winding-type shielding apparatus for a conveyance such as an electric train, a train, a bus, or a passage boat. Conventionally, shading curtains attached to a window part of a conveyance such as an electric train, a train, or a bus in particular include a lateral manual curtain, a curtain in which the lower end of the curtain is pulled from the top side to the lower side to hook hook parts formed at the lower ends, of the curtain to hook concave sections at the lateral sides of the window, and a free-stop-type longitudinal roll screen.
The above lateral manual curtain has a disadvantage in that an end part of the window partially blocks light entering the window when the curtain is opened and is not used to block light and this end part disturbs the view and also causes a poor appearance.
The above curtain in which the curtain is retained by hooking the hook parts cannot be retained in a nonstep manner because the curtain can be retained only at positions at which the hook concave sections are formed. This curtain also has a disadvantage in that the curtain must be raised and lowered by both hands.
The above free-stop-type longitudinal roll screen can be retained in a nonstep manner but always requires a troublesome operation to open the roll screen by holding the handles at the lowermost end of the roll screen to push up the roll screen, which is disadvantageous.
It is an objective of the present invention to solve the above disadvantages.
The present invention is a window up-and-down-winding-type shielding apparatus for a conveyance that has a shielding member movable in an up-and-down direction for forming a shading screen at a window part of the conveyance and that causes the shielding member to be moved in the up-and-down direction to adjust a shading range of the window part. This apparatus includes: a pair of guide rails that are provided at both sides of the window part of the conveyance and that extends in the up-and-down direction so as to be parallel to each other; a moving member that is supported by the guide rails along the guide rails so as to be movable in the up-and-down direction and that is connected to a lower end of the shielding member; a winding mechanism that has a rotation section for retractably winding the shielding member at an upper end of the guide rail; a biasing force application means that applies a biasing force to the rotation section of the winding mechanism in a direction along which the shielding member is wounded; a motion conversion mechanism that converts the movement of the moving member in the up-and-down direction along the guide rails to a rotational motion; an axis member that is coordinated with the motion conversion mechanism to have a rotational motion in accordance with the up-and-down movement of the moving member; and a mechanism for switching a direction along which the rotative force is transmitted by which the rotation of the axis member in one direction is allowed and the rotation of the axis member in other directions is limited and the free rotation direction and the limited rotation direction can be switched.
Also according to the present invention, the motion conversion mechanism is composed of a rack gear formed to be parallel to the guide rail and a pinion gear meshed with the rack gear. Also according to the present invention, the motion conversion mechanism is composed of a rail face of the guide rail and a pulley that contacts with the rail face and that is rotated by a frictional force in accordance with the up-and-down movement of the moving member along the guide rail.
Also according to the present invention, an impact-absorbing means is provided that absorbs an impact by collision at an end at which the winding of the shielding member is completed between the moving member and a side at which the elevation of the moving member is stopped.
The up-and-down-winding-type shielding apparatus of the present invention can be operated very easily due to the following structure. Specifically, for a shielding operation, a handle at the lowermost end of the shielding member can be operated to descend the shielding member for shielding. Then, this operation may be stopped at an arbitrary position at which the pulled-out shielding member is fixed. For an opening operation (i.e., for an operation to store the shielding member) on the other hand, the handle at the lowermost end of the shielding member can be held to slightly elevate the handle to smoothly elevate the shielding member to the most-opened position (i.e., storage position).
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.
The guide rails 42 and 44 have therebetween a moving member 48. The moving member 48 extends in a direction orthogonal to the guide rails 42 and 44 and consists of a plate member having an L-like cross section. This moving member 48 has a handle 47. At the upper ends of the side frames 32A and 32B, brackets 50 and 52 are fixed, respectively. One bracket 50 has a pipe-like bearing 54 and the other bracket 52 has a fixed oil damper 56. The upper parts of the side frames 32A and 32B have therebetween a winding roller 58 provided in the horizontal direction. The inner circumference face of the cylindrical section of the winding roller 58 has a fixed pipe-like bearing 60.
The bearing 60 has a rotation axis 62 fixed at the center of the winding roller 58. One end of the rotation axis 62 is rotatably supported by the bearing 54 and the other end thereof is connected to a rotation section of the oil damper 56 (not shown). The rotation axis 62 has a coil spring 64 (biasing force application means) for biasing the winding that is freely fitted. Both ends of the coil spring 64 are engaged with the outer circumference faces of the bearings 54 and 60 and are locked by the bearings 54 and 60, respectively.
A shielding member 40 is wound around the outer circumference face of the winding roller 58. The shielding member 40 is composed of a flexible screen member having sheet-like shape and blocks the light coming through the window 34 of the conveyance. One end of the inner side of the shielding member 40 is locked by the winding roller 58. The rotation axis 62, a bearing mechanism for rotatably supporting the rotation axis 62, and the winding roller 58 constitute a winding mechanism that retractably winds the shielding member 40 at the upper ends of the guide rails 42 and 44. At both sides of the lower face of a horizontal section 48a of the moving member 48, guide plates 68 are provided, respectively. At the upper face corresponding to the lower face, the first support plates 70 and 72 having an L-like shape are provided, respectively.
Among the first support plates 70 and 72, the first support plate 70 is provided as shown in
The axis member 12 has a bidirectional clutch 78 attached thereto and has a fixed pinion gear 80. The pinion gear 80 is meshed with a rack gear 82 that is fixedly provided in the guide rail 42 along the longitudinal direction. The first support plate 72 at the other side of the moving member 48 and a guide plate 68 are fixed by a locking tool consisting of the screw 102 and the nut 104 to the upper face of the horizontal section 48a of the moving member 48 as shown in
The first support plates 70 and 72 at the left and right sides of the moving member 48 respectively have pairs of rollers 84, 86, 88, and 90 that are axially supported in a rotatable manner in the up-and-down direction. The respective rollers 84, 86, 88, and 90 are rotatably engaged with and guided by the respective roller guide faces 46a and 46b of rail grooves 46 formed in the longitudinal direction of the guide rails 42 and 44. The guide plates 68 are slidably abutted to the rail faces formed in the longitudinal direction of the guide rails 42 and 44 to guide the moving member 48 in a straight direction along the longitudinal direction of the guide rails 42 and 44.
As shown in
Next, the configuration of the bidirectional clutch 78 will be described with reference to
The bidirectional clutch 78 constitutes a mechanism for switching a direction along which the rotative force is transmitted. This mechanism allows the rotation of the axis member 12 in one direction and limits the rotation of the axis member 12 in other directions and can switch the free rotation direction and the limited rotation direction. To carry out the present invention, the switching mechanism is not limited to the structure of a bidirectional clutch as will be described below and can use various conventionally-known bidirectional clutch structures.
As shown in
The base member 10 has an annular body 10A. The outer face of the body 10A in the axis direction has a pair of protrusions 10B (see
As shown in
As shown in
This retainer 10D has a fan-like cross section and is provided at three or more positions and are formed at four positions in the shown embodiment. These fan-like retainers 10D are provided in the circumference direction of the axis member 12 with an equal interval. The respective retainers 10D include curved inner faces 10D1 extending along the outer circumference face of the axis member 12 and curved outer faces 10D2 extending along the outer face of the annular the base member body 10A.
The respective curved inner faces 10D1 are formed by a concentric circle slightly larger than a circle forming the outer circumference face of the axis member 12. The respective curved outer faces 10D2 are formed by a concentric circle slightly smaller than a circle forming the outer circumference face of the annular the base member body 10A.
As shown in
The piece member 16 is made of high hardness metal and is made of iron-base sintered material in this illustrative embodiment. The piece member 16 also may be made of high hardness metal such as carbonitrided and hardened steel material. The material constituting the piece member 16 is not limited to metal and also may be any high hardness material such as ceramic or resin so long as the material has a sufficiently-high hardness by which the piece member 16 can be durable during the use. The bidirectional clutch also includes a needle 20 that is a rolling member stored in the space 18.
The length of the axis member 12 of this needle 20 in the axis line direction is substantially the same as the length of the piece member 16 as shown in
As shown in
In the expanded section 18B, the distance between the inner face of the piece member 16 in the radial direction and the outer circumferential face of the axis member 12 is larger than the diameter of the needle 20.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
For example, the biasing means to piece member 16 also may be a plate spring that has a C-like cross section and that has a substantially-cylindrical shape. The biasing means to the piece member 16 also can be provided for each piece member. For example, as shown in
In any case, the biasing means to the piece member 16 can be appropriately selected from among biasing means known in the field. As shown in
Next, with reference to
When the moving member 48 moves from the open position to a fixed shielding position to stop the descending operation of the moving member 48, then the action by the restoring resilient force of the winding of the coil spring 64 generates a force for returning the moving member 48 in the upward direction that acts on the axis member 12. Then, the axis member 12 is rotated in the direction opposite to the direction shown by the arrow A of
Next, in order to elevate the moving member 48, an operation is required to use a hand to pull up the moving member 48 with a predetermined force or more. This force depends on the resilient force of the coil spring 24 that allows the piece member 16 to move to the outer side in the radial direction and is equal to or higher than the resilient force. When a torque acting on the axis member 12 in the direction opposite to the direction shown by the arrow A of
When the piece member 16 is moved to the outer side, the needle 20 is moved to the expanded section 18B at the opposite side over the narrow section 18A (the right side in
Next, with reference to
The second embodiment is the same as the first embodiment 1 except for a change in the configuration of the piece member 16. Specifically, in the second embodiment, the piece member 16A is made of resin having a low hardness. The inner face in the radial direction of the low hardness piece member 16A and the needle 20 have therebetween a plate member 16B made of high hardness material. This plate member 16B is preferably made of high hardness material such as iron-base sintered metal. This plate member 16B also may be made of carbonitrided and hardened steel material. This plate member 16B also may be made of ceramic or resin material having a sufficiently-high hardness.
Alternatively, the piece member in this second embodiment also may be provided as a complex composed of a low-hardness section 16A made of low-hardness resin material and a high-hardness section 16B that is made of high hardness material and that is provided at the inner face in the radial direction of the low-hardness section 16A in an integrated manner.
In the first and second embodiments as described above, when it is securely guaranteed that the needle 20 is rolled in accordance with the rotation of the axis member 12 and is placed in the narrow section 18A, then the needle biasing means (i.e., the plate spring 22) may be omitted.
In the first and second embodiments as described above, the four fan-like retainers 10D were provided so as to divide the inner face-side of base member body 10A by the guide path 14 extending in the cross direction to four parts and the total of four piece members 16 were used for the respective guide paths 14. However, the number of the fan-like retainers 10D, the guide paths 14, and the piece members 16 are not limited to them and may be provided in an amount of three or more to provide a stable operation of the bidirectional clutch. The fan-like retainers 10D, the guide paths 14, and the piece members 16 are preferably provided around the axis member 12 with an equal interval. Next, with reference to
The third embodiment is the same as the embodiment shown in
In the above up-and-down operation of the moving member, the moving member 48 also functions as a handle means. An operator can pull down or push up the moving member 48 by one hand. When the moving member 48 is elevated by the winding force of the winding roller 58 and reaches the uppermost end, then rollers 86 and 90 of the moving member 48 collide with an impact-absorbing member 92 that is provided at the upper ends of the guide rails 42 and 44 and that is made of urethane rubber for example. This mitigates the impact by the collision of the moving member 48 with the side at which the moving member 48 is locked at an end at which the winding of the shielding member 40 is completed.
Furthermore, the damper force by an oil damper 56 acts on the rotation of the rotation axis 62 in accordance with the up-and-down movement of the moving member 48 to allow the moving member 48 to move, without being suddenly moved, in the up-and-down direction by an external operation force or a winding elevation force. The above impact-absorbing member 92 constitutes an impact-absorbing means that absorbs the impact between the moving member 48 and the side at which the elevation of the moving member 48 is stopped at an end at which the winding of the shielding member 40 is completed. This impact-absorbing means is not particularly limited to the shown configuration in which the upper ends of the guide rails 42 and 44 have the impact-absorbing member 92 and is not limitedly provided to the side at which the winding of the shielding member 40 is locked. This impact-absorbing means also may be provided to the moving member 48.
The impact-absorbing means also may be provided between the moving member 48 and a side at which the descending movement of the moving member 48 is stopped. The motion conversion mechanism to convert the up-and-down movement of the moving member 48 to a rotational motion to transmit this rotational motion to the axis member 12 of the bidirectional clutch is not particularly limited to the configuration of the rack gear 82 and the pinion gear 80 shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2008-134033 | May 2008 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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503037 | Crisson | Aug 1893 | A |
516603 | King | Mar 1894 | A |
636123 | Emery | Oct 1899 | A |
1033224 | Andlauer | Jul 1912 | A |
5887637 | Phyper | Mar 1999 | A |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20090288347 A1 | Nov 2009 | US |